Short-term internships can provide long-term value

As winter break neared, Alexandra Hurtado was unsure of where her future career in journalism would take her. But the University of Miami senior was sure of one thing – she couldn’t bear to sit on her couch binge-watching Friends reruns pondering her options. Instead, she researched and applied for internship opportunities, which led to a four-week gig at Us Weekly.

Two years later as a freelancer for Us Weekly, she interviews high-profile celebrities like Jennifer Lopez and Lauren Conrad, attends red carpets and exclusive events and even covers concerts such as the iHeart Radio Music Festival and Jay-Z and Beyoncé’s On the Run Tour.

“My passion for entertainment news has always been there, but I think Us Weekly opened my eyes to how I could pursue a career in that industry,” Hurtado says. “Thank God for it, because I loved my internship and I have loved my freelance position that came as a result of it.”

Though Hurtado’s shortened internship may seem unusual when compared to common semester-long internships, she is not alone — many students are reaping the benefits of taking on short-term internships during winter break, spring break and other short periods of downtime.

These brief programs may fall short in hours of hands-on experience in comparison to 10- to 12-week summer internships, but they are just as beneficial to many students who want to build a network, learn how to work in a professional environment, solidify a career path or create post-graduation job opportunities.

Many students are reaping the benefits of taking on short-term internships during winter break, spring break and other short periods of downtime.

While summer internship postings are abundant across many platforms, short-term internships can be much more difficult to find. Some students, like Jasmine Massa of Kent State University, says short-term internships are harder to find through websites and career services but are worth the extra search.

This year during her school’s winter break, Massa interned as a graphic designer at Price Builders & Developers Inc., a construction supplier, contractor, design build consultant and signatory for machine operators based in Cleveland, Ohio. Similar to Hurtado, Massa took it upon herself to research and seek out an experience that would suit her timeframe.

“I was worried I would not have enough time to intern during the semester, but I really wanted the opportunity, so I asked the company if they would be willing to have me for winter break,” Massa said. “Before this internship, I hadn’t really heard of winter break internships.”

The company did not have a winter internship program, but they willingly created the position for Massa. From the day she started, she was assigned to a large project of rebranding of a 2,200-product catalog and had professional communication with a team of designers as opposed to her last internship where she was given specific assignments as the only designer, she said.

If she did not inquire, she would not have been able to gain the hands-on experience and crucial connections she made during her time there. Because of this, she says she is more likely to continue to reach out on her own for future internships.

“Schools help to provide some guidance, but they spend more time advertising semester-long internships because they are a requirement, as opposed to short-term breaks which can be just as beneficial,” she said. “In the future, I would e-mail a company because it is definitely worth it to take a shot and ask if they would want to let me work with them for a shorter period.”

Brittany Legasey, a graduate of Syracuse University, also say she never heard of short-term internships before landing two “winternships” at a local cable news station and NHL hockey team in Worcester, Mass.

“I reached out to the places I interned at on my own accord, because I figured that most of the college students that were interning for the fall semester would be leaving and going home for break,” she say. “They did not have any programs, but I told them what I wanted to do and they accommodated me.”

After working 30 hours a week at the news station and 20 hours a week for the hockey team, she said the experiences made her realize that a 40-hour-per-week journalism job was not what she wanted. But because of those experiences combined with her other journalism internships, she was hired in March 2014 as a campaign manager for a local state Senate reelection campaign and she currently works for the election commission for the city of Worcester, Mass.

“The reelection campaign wanted me, because at that point I had interned at every media organization in the city, and I would not have been able to do that if I hadn’t had my winter break internships,” she said.

To provide a way for students to get a brief learning experience that can help determine clear career paths as Legasey’s did, the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. offers one-week internships for students from anywhere in the world studying in any field.

Mary Sangrey, head of academic services at NMNH, say the museum’s internships range from science research to public affairs and allow students to explore career options before making a long-term commitment to a summer program. Also, it helps expand their network of colleagues and information base, which can help in the future, she says.

Building a large network of successful contacts is a crucial element to the School of Information Studies — or iSchool — at Syracuse, which provides a unique concept for students looking to further their careers in the tech industry and find out more about companies in the Silicon Valley.

Spring Break in Silicon Valley, a program that is now in its fifth year, offers students the chance to apply to be one of 15 to 20 participants who visit 25 companies in the Valley during the week of spring break. Syracuse alumni who work at companies like Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and Apple help arrange the visits for students to see what these careers look like for real people, not just Mark Zuckerberg, Julie Walas Huynh director of academic advising & student engagement at the iSchool says.

Through the program, students gain exposure to companies that have a strong campus recruiting culture, have the option to pitch their innovative ideas all week, search for jobs and talk to alumni who can help them chart their own career path and gain a sense of what it is like to work in the area, director of west coast relationships for the iSchool Shay Colson says.

Ross Lazerowitz, a senior systems and information science major at Syracuse, went on the trip a few years ago and made connections that eventually landed him internships and a future full-time job at Splunk, a big data company that is a leading platform for real-time operational intelligence.

After making connections, checking out the culture and realizing he wanted to work there, Lazerowitz interned at Splunk the last two summers and eventually accepted a full-time job there that will start once he graduates college.

Colson said he does not know of many other programs like Spring Break in Silicon Valley, but he believes the experience of touring the area when students are young and can bring all energy of the experience back to campus is incredibly valuable.

“To see Syracuse alumni working at these companies gives students the boost that they can chart that path and feel like they can do the same if they want to,” Colson says. “Here is somebody who has done it and who can help them — for students that is a big take away.”

Lauren Blum is a senior at Penn State University and a spring 2015 Collegiate Correspondent.